Ave Maria Bach Gounod: Instrumental Piano

The Ave Maria by Bach/Gounod is a composition based on the Latin text "Ave Maria," originally published in 1853 as the "Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach" (Meditation on the First Piano Prelude by J.S. Bach). The piece features a melody by the French romantic composer Charles Gounod, specifically designed to be overlaid on Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of "The Well-Tempered Clavier," written 137 years earlier.

Gounod improvised the melody, and his future father-in-law, Pierre Joseph Guillaume Zimmermann, transcribed the improvisation. In 1853, Zimmermann arranged it for violin (or cello) with piano and harmonium. That same year, it was published with the lyrics of Alphonse de Lamartine's poem "Le livre de la vie" (The Book of Life). In 1859, Jacques Léopold Heugel published a version with the customary Latin text. Gounod's version of Bach's prelude includes the "Schwencke measure" (m.23), seemingly added by Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke in an attempt to correct what he considered a "defective" progression, although this type of progression was standard in Bach's music.

Alongside Schubert's or Jacques Offenbach's Ave Maria, the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria has become a staple in wedding ceremonies, funerals, and quinceañera celebrations. There are various instrumental arrangements for violin and guitar, string quartet, piano solos, cello, and especially trombones. Opera singers, such as Luciano Pavarotti, as well as choirs, have recorded it hundreds of times during the 20th century.

Hail Mary prayer:

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with thee;
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.


The Hail Mary Prayer in Latin:

Ave Maria, gratia plena,
Dominus tecum;
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
Et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.